Goal Wrap-Up

Warm weather is definitely here to stay for a while.  The garden is loving it, as am I.  Strawberries are finally ready (as of a week ago) so I picked up a slab of goat cheese for a really delicious snack.  It also really spruced up my salads this week - add some dried cranberries, walnuts and chicken over some homegrown greens.  Delish.

Check out the goal list for the month of June!  Things have been BUSY, but the best kind of busy.  I love summer.  Have I mentioned how much I love summer?  I really love summer.  And I’m a little sad that the first third of it is over.

• Get the boat out.  Incidentally, I went on three boat rides and none of them were on my boat.  My boat launch has become a mess of mud, lumber and a silt fence, and launching the Sunfish has become nearly impossible.
• Eat something from the garden.  Garden salads!  I’ve been eating them for like three weeks straight now and they are DELICIOUS.  Lettuce, arugula, spinach, radish greens, radishes, etc.  Also great with the aforementioned strawberries and goat cheese.
• Farmers market!  It started slowly but surely, with just a few plants and herbs.
• Read a book.  Read TWO books.   Count it!  Quitter by Jon Acuff and Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew (picked up the 2005 edition at Goodwill! Score!).  Both are incredibly interesting and highly recommended. 
• Go camping.  Well, I had great intentions to go this weekend and it just didn’t work out.  That’s not saying I’m NOT going camping this weekend, but if I do, I won’t be going very far.
• Find a campfire and go enjoy it.  I did!  There were a few fires, in fact, with different people at each.   
• Start some rhubarb wine.  Well, I chopped up the rhubarb I needed.  But then I realized I was lacking wine yeast.  I picked that up last weekend, so now I’m ready to start fermenting.

Well dang.  I feel pretty accomplished.  And I love that all of my goals had to do with either gardening or social events.  If that isn’t summer in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.  I should also mention that I attended TWO first-day-of-summer parties.  Neither of which were referred to as solstice parties.

So, Independence Day is upon us.  Last year’s was pretty epic, and I’m not sure this year can live up to that precedent, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try!  

July goals:

• Start up Stir-Fry Season with style – some homegrown summer squash, maybe even zucchini, peas, and dare I say some pear tomatoes (yes, pear.  I had heard of cherry, plum, and grape tomatoes, but this year we got some pear tomatoes to keep on the porch.  Apparently they turn yellow, not red)?
• Recipe Round-up:  I’ve been blogging for quite a while, possibly even enough time to amass enough recipes to do a recipe round-up.  So look forward to collection of good summer recipes.
• Camping is on the list.  Camping is always on the list when it comes to summer.
• Ice cream from Tasty Treat.  There, I said it.  Sometimes you need to travel for the ice cream you love.
• Exercise:  in typical summer fashion, I started being too busy with summer activities to keep up my workout routine, so it’s time to bring that back.  Now that it’s so light out in the morning, I’ve been naturally waking up earlier, so it’s a perfect opportunity.
• Smoothies:  I froze a lot of fruit last year, intending to use it in smoothies.  As it turns out, I’m just not a big smoothie person when the weather is cold.  So I need to use up some fruit!

Have I mentioned how great arugula is?

Mom's Rhubarb Custard Cake

It has occurred to me that I don't actually have the recipe for this one, so you can make this at your own risk.  How's that for a fun first line of a recipe post?  Anyway, I do have my mom's recipe somewhere, but I think you can get along without it.

Once again, the rhubarb season has probably left you behind, while here in northern Michigan, we haven't even started up our farmers market yet.  Feel sorry for me.  Warm weather only lasts three months here.

We chopped up 30 pounds of rhubarb - enough for two (5 gal) batches of wine.

I think you could probably do this with a box cake mix, if that's what sounded good to you.  Otherwise, pick your favorite cake and pour the batter into a 9x13 pan.  I used whole wheat flour.

Sprinkle with four cups of rhubarb.

Add 1 cup of sugar.

Lastly, top with 1 cup of milk.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Refrigerate leftovers.  Tastes delicious either warm or cold.

It really didn't need whipped cream, I just added some because...well, let's face it, it's an ugly cake.  And it is extra brown because I used whole wheat flour.

I have owned my DSLR for a full 1.5 years.  I almost never used the manual modes, because everything would come out with a blue tint to it and I could never figure out why.  While shooting this cake, I discovered some light settings, and my camera was set to "fluorescent."  Well, it's now set to "daylight," and hopefully you'll see some photography improvements now that I've discovered how to change the dang light mode.  Not that my lighting situation at home will improve at all unless I move, but, you know.  A girl can dream.

Campfire Cast Iron Chili with Wild Leeks

The camping of yesteryear was pretty strictly hot dogs and tonka pies.  And while I still love a good tonka pie, camping as an adult has brought out whole new list of camp foods (feta-stuffed basil burgers, steak topped with bacon, onions and mushrooms).  A little bit of me feels like camping has become very food-centric.  A lot of me is pretty okay with that focus.

And when a friend of mine slow cooked some venison chili over a fire all afternoon...well, let's just say when you're camping and it's rainy, there's no nicer end of the day.  Compound it with some sharp cheese, a good IPA, and of course the company of your favorite friends.  Have I mentioned how much I love summer and camping?

Mushroom season.  It's over for most of you, but here in northern Michigan we've still got a few left.  Not that we found any, but whilst hunting, we did chance upon some wild leeks.  Or ramps.  Whatever.  Those are probably out of season for you too. 

 Best practice:  chop all your veggies ahead of time so camp chili is more of a toss-everything-together-and-simmer-all-afternoon type of deal.  Mediocre practice:  chop and put together when you're ready.  Worst practice:  realize you don't have everything you need, send some fellow campers home to gather more supplies, flip burgers with a machete in the meantime.  What, just us?

Here's where we deviate from normal chili.  You want a fire that's not too hot, and mostly coals.  You want the pot to be more or less right over top of the coals, whether that means moving the coals or moving perhaps a handy tripod that suspends your pot.  And, as always, start by sauteing the onions - 1 large red onion, 6-10 wild leeks.  I know the fire looks dead.  It's not.  It's very hot under there.

I added 3 lbs of ground turkey, 2 cans (shall we say around the 12 - 16 oz range?) of diced tomatoes, 1 chopped bell pepper, 1 large can of chili beans (probably closer to the 22 oz range).  Top it off with variable amounts of chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and some oregano.  A pinch of cinnamon, if it sounds good to you.

Bring the whole thing up to a simmer.  That's where you want to keep it.  If it's boiling, your fire is too hot.  If it's flat, your fire isn't hot enough.

It will sound like a lot of effort, but when you're camping, it really isn't as bad as it sounds.  I started the chili around noon and simmered it until dinner time no one could wait any longer.  I probably checked on the chili every 15 minutes or so, and kept an eye on the fire in between.  But I was also playing games, reading, and catching up on my beer quota for the weekend.  And if I was mid-game, there was generally someone else who could give it a stir in my absence.  It's a team effort!

It started out pretty thick, but by the end of the afternoon, the tomatoes had softened up into a nice, juicy chili.  I don't think I've ever described chili as juicy before.  What I mean is that it was the perfect consistency.  And although all the photos have been sans lid, a lid is very VERY helpful for keeping the ashes out.

Simmering for that long really reduces the flavor of the spices, so I did end up adding a pinch more cinnamon at the end, but this was definitely one of the best chilis I've made.  Absolutely worth the effort.

I know this chili isn't exactly a middle-of-August camping treat, but this was Memorial weekend in northern Michigan - nightly lows were hitting freezing temps.  So this chili is exactly what the weather was calling for.  Oh, and check out our new tent!  Pictured in the very cold morning light.

June Goals

I didn't plan well today, so there won't be many photos.  Or maybe there will.  I'll have to see if there's anything relevant on my phone.

Random lunch from this month.  I keep saying I don't like dressing, but I've slowly started adding a spritz of extra virgin olive oil to my salads.  And lately, I've been adding some nice dijon mustard too.  So it's kind of inaccurate to say I don't like dressing.  But I digress:

• Survive.  Actually, thrive.  I know I’ll survive.  I did - both.  I had a great time this month, and I don't feel like I was ever overly stressed.  Which leads right into the next goal:
• Be realistic about stress. 
• Spend a night in the garden.  Maybe plant some things.  Enjoy the sunshine and the dirt.  I did all these things too.  Actually, I spent two nights in the garden, and got the whole thing planted up with Amish tomatoes and peppers
• I’ve got a budget that I haven’t been doing too well at.  Goal for May: stay within ten percent of my budget.  Better yet: under budget.  I still need to do some accounting before I make the final call on this one, but so far things are looking pretty good.
• Blog once a week.  Despite being sans-internet at home, this one is accomplished.  My life is ridiculously different now.  I no longer waste time online.  Sure, there the occasional facebook bout, but I never manage to spend more than ten minutes on facebook anymore.  It's weird.  More or less, I check facebook and a few news stories at lunch, and that's practically the extent of my time online at home.

So, May was like the busiest month of my life.  I feel like I'm still recovering.  And, let's face it, summer isn't a time for working goals, it's a time for hanging out with friends and getting the boat out.  So let's make the June goals something appealing.

• Get the boat out.  Not just mine.  I'm lookin' at you, Baneys and Boonzaaijers.
• Eat something from the garden.  Yeah, it will probably just be some spinach or arugula, but it's a start.
• Farmers market?  Does the farmers market start this month?!  Farmers market!  It's coming back, I'm excited, and I will be in attendance at some point this month.
• Read a book.  Read TWO books.  
• Go camping.  I actually squeezed some camping into May.  I should write a post about May.
• Find a campfire and go enjoy it.  This campfire must be unrelated from the camping trip.
• Start some rhubarb wine.  That's right, people, it's wine season again.

I made wine from a kit and it came with these labels. I brought the wine to a place where some of my not-so-mature friends were present, so I decided to class these ladies up a bit.  I think it's funny.  You probably don't.  I don't care, it's my blog and I can put whatever I want here.

Yay summer!

Avocado Brownies (paleo and gluten-free)

Holy frick on a stick.  These are good.  I made this over a week ago...and I sit here still dreaming about the rich, moist, chocolatey brownies.  Well, let's face facts.  Cake.  Not really brownies.  I still haven't gotten that fudgy, brownie vibe from any of the paleo recipes I've tried yet.  But people! this cake.  I added chocolate/mint chips as a (color-wise) shout-out to the avocado.

I followed this recipe nearly to the letter.  I rarely do that.  I had the perfect avocado on hand.

The recipe says to process the avocado until VERY SMOOTH.  I did what I could.  It seemed to work out pretty well.

Dark chocolate gets chopped up and melted with some smooth butter.

Super luscious.  One taste and it's all over...so dump it into the mix before you eat it all!

Throw everything in a bowl!

Lots of colors go into the brownie mix.  Avocado, melted chocolate, eggs, cocoa powder, coconut flour, honey, almond butter...

 But in the end it all comes together!

I added chocolate chips!  In it, on it...oh, and there were some mint chips too.

And...bake.

Let it stand...then slice it up warm, and devour.  Holy cake, batman!

Avocado Brownie (Cake) heavily based on this

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe avocado
• 1/4 c. almond butter (can also use sunflower seed butter to keep it nut-free)
• 1/2 c. honey
• 4 oz unsweetened dark chocolate
• 1 tbs butter (or coconut oil)
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 1 tbs coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 350*.
2.  Process the avocado in a food processor until smooth.
3.  Melt the dark chocolate and butter in the microwave in 15 second increments until smooth (stirring in between).
4.  Mix up everything except the chocolate chips.  I would add the eggs last just so the hot chocolate doesn't cook them.  When well-mixed, add the chocolate chips.
5.  Put the batter in a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.

I loved these fresh out the of oven, but they were pretty dang good reheated as well.

Kabob Skewers

This is barely a recipe.  This is easily the most customizable, delicious summer meal there is. 

Chop some vegetables into big chunks.  When I started this recipe, I realized I had barely any food left in the house.  Peppers and mushrooms.  Consider adding onions, seasonal veggies (Asparagus!  Wild leeks!), broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, bok choy, and whatever else sounds good.

  Add the meat of your choice, chopped into bite-sized pieces.  Chicken or venison are my faves.

Skewer everything!  I got these awesome flexible stainless steel skewers.  I can't wait to grill with them!

The day I made these, it was a little on the windy side and my mini grill just isn't that robust.  That's okay, the broiler works just fine for these.  Add some spices - whatever you want!  Salt and pepper, for sure, and maybe something cajun or chipotle.

Broil for 5 minutes per side, making sure the meat gets cooked through.  These skewers were really easy to flip.

Roasted veggies are the best.

Serve these veggies over rice, cauli rice...or just by themselves!

One really great thing about these is that you can pretty much use anything.  Any veggies, any meat, any spices!  It's one of those perfect summer dishes.

Red Quinoa Salad with Basil

I'm seriously lacking in photos for this one, but it was just so tasty.  And Memorial Day is right around the corner.  So why not.  Let's put it on the blog.  This is a great recipe to bring to gatherings of people.

Red Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 c. uncooked red quinoa
• 1/2 large bell pepper
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 lime (juice and zest)
• 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbs. red wine vinegar
• 1 tbs. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper

Instructions
1.  Cook the quinoa according to the directions on the package.  Put in the fridge to cool.
2.  Chop the pepper and tomato, toss with the quinoa.  Add the lime juice and zest.
3.  Mix up the remaining ingredients and toss with the quinoa. 
4.  Top with chopped basil leaves for garnish.

To make up for my lack of photos, please enjoy the following pics from my little brother's art show, which used reclaimed materials.  I would really like to title this one "Jaws."  I am not sure he would appreciate that.

And this is me with my brother and his truly delightful lady friend.  Photobomb courtesy of our mutual friend.

And for funsies, here's a salad I made that was particularly pretty.

Okay, well that's all for now.  If everything goes according to plan, I should be having a lovely trip down to North Carolina right about now.